Catholic and Protestant churches in the Czech Republic are to stage joint commemorations of the martyred Bohemian reformer, Jan Hus (1371-1415), on the sixth centenary in 2015 of his execution at the Council of Constance. “The Catholic Church has apologised for the burning of Jan Hus and instigated a study of his work and personality,” said Bishop Frantisek Radkovsky, head of the Czech Church’s ecumenical commission.
“It now wishes to co-operate with other Churches in this anniversary. We owe it to Hus, and above all to God, to make sure this event unites rather than divides Czech Christians.”
The bishop was speaking in Prague at the signing of an agreement with the Hussite Church and Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren on shared events to commemorate Hus’s death. He said Pope John Paul II had acknowledged the reformer’s “personal integrity of life” and “commitment to the nation’s instruction and moral education” in 1990, and had also expressed “deep regret” in 1999 for his “cruel death”, which “provoked conflicts and divisions”.
Hus, a university teacher and rector of Prague’s Bethlehem Chapel, was excommunicated in 1410 for his early Reformation ideas on church order and authority. Summoned to defend his teachings at Constance on a promise of safe conduct, he was tried and burned at the stake, sparking a wave of Hussite rebellions.
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